Album Review: Clipse-Til The Casket Drops
By Odeisel
he game is about progress. No one risks their lives and their freedom to do hand to hands forever. The Clipse are no exception. Their progression from the surprisingly strong Lord Willing to the classic quality Hell Hath No Fury have musically moved them from the corners to the weight and now with their latest release, the boys from VA bring us their latest work (pun intended) ‘Til The Casket Drops. This time they bring along the secret weapons from American Gangster, Sean C & LV to add some blue magic to Pharell suicide wrist red. Will the Clipse have done enough to warrant their “best duo ever” proclamations or will they meet the same fate that most hustlers do when they change their product? Read on.
Sean & LV open the package with “Freedom,” with all the appropriate energy; fast-paced, high-powered guitar punctuated by timely keys, underlying bongos, and mood driving strings. The intro serves as thesis for the album as Malice and Pusher take turns delivering punishing paragraphs.
From there, the album immediately changes to a slower-paced flow with more “fun” than you’re used to hearing from the Clipse on the Cam’rom collaboration “Popular Demand (Popeyes).” While it’s a stark departure from their usual steeze, it does provide contrast. Cam drops a non nonsensical verse and really wrestles this one to submission. Verses like this stop you from wondering what all the Cam fuss is about. Not the greatest, but good for a pace changer.
Back on the fast track, is the long-leaked, Kanye-assisted “Kinda Like A Big Deal.” Kanye’s charisma outshines the Clipse on this one but they don’t fail deliver over this frenetic beat with thumping drums and keyboard fueled chaos serving as the backdrop. The chorus is sleek with not much extra cheese on the pie. You begin to notice that the Clipse are concerned with their legacy with the thinly veiled references to B.I.G., ‘Tupac, and occasionally Jay-Z.
The first pleasant surprise is the Neptunes produced Yo Gotti rapped track “Showing Out.” Gotti bodies it with a Jeezy-like cadence flowing fluidly with the in/out patter of the synths. This beat is heavy and active with many parts moving together like a watch. “I’m from the era of letter to the better…Common loved her but I’m a have to dead her” raps Malice as he extols the old school virtues and decries the new, even as he adapts to the current state of affairs.
Throughout the album, you can see the Clipse attempting sonically to reap the rewards of their cult star status, no longer willing, Lord or otherwise, to dwell in a corner of the game. This different approach is noticeably present on the Pharrell-helmed “I’m Good” which begins the celebratory phase of their “hustling.” The song chronicles the journey from being hood rich and bar buying to house buying and growing out of the street driven paranoia long enough to enjoy the spoils. While the latter is generally accompanied by getting out the game, the Clipse show no signs of wanting to walk away. Also in this vein of celebration is the bottom heavy “Champion.”
Another change in style is the DJ Khalil produced “There Was A Murder,” a more fluid “What Happened To That Boy” 2.0 with an island flavor that is happily only used for this track. Cute for one round, but potentially annoying as hell. They return to the style that you’re used to with the slow screw of “Doorman,” which carries a hazed out 808-powered synth layered rhythm. Ab-Liva gets back in the game Re-Up Gang style on “Never Will It Stop.” His flow is still in fine form, bringing the album back center with aplomb. Street science over a hard driving beat, sans singing and extra shit. It’s a crack-rap Christmas.
The album is not without flaws. The Keri-Hilson chorused “Eyes on Me” is what would happen if the 2 Live Crew had any discernable lyrical talent. The beat is go-go bar ready and you can imagine those asses clapping to this, but you don’t really turn to the Clipse for this kind of music. Hilson fails to distinguish herself on the hook, and when she comes in for her mini verse she sounds like Beyonce lite. Not wack, but seemingly out of place. The song is immediately followed by the synth heavy “Counseling” which is corny. Really corny. It’s just an excuse to showcase new artist Nicole Hurst.
That organ driven drama the Clipse are known for returns on “Footsteps.” The hard melody is punctuated by a relatively non annoying autotuned hook which is quickly forgotten when Malice goes in on the second verse with murderous intent. Ironically the most Clipse-sounding material on the album came from the new producers and not Pharell.
In all Till The Casket Drops is a very good album that lacks the cohesiveness of the classic Hell Hath. The excess length allows from a couple songs that are filler and don’t further the journey of the album. But it is by no means a failure musically. It feels like the Clipse are trying to get out of the crack rap box and to vary their sound musically, which is generally a good idea. It is clear that they are no longer content to reside on those corners and want to live the good life of acclaim. They managed to expand without flat out surrendering their souls, and that is to be commended. Still lyrically strong and still blessed with superior production, just a bit bloated and a tad off center in composition. The product is still potent.
out of 5
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by odeisel: http://planetill.com/2009/11/album-review-clipse-till-the-casket-drops/
Album Review: CLipse-Til The Casket Drops…
How is it of “excess length”???? It’s only 51 minutes and 13 tracks. It’s shorter than 80% of all hip-hop albums out there. I like your review but it felt like you were just trying to find something to justify the 4/5 by saying its bloated…when its not even an hour long! It’s 13 tracks and 51 minutes. The album is anything but bloated. It might not be as good as HHNF or Lord willin’, but it being “bloated” is not the reason why it isn’t as good. It’s like 2 minutes longer than HHNF! so now its bloated?!?!?!
Bloated refers to filler. It’s not abolute length, but length of what works on the album in relation to what doesn’t If there are only 12 tracks and two songs are filler, that’s a significant amount. Hell Hath was a much tighter narrative with every single song contributing to the entire story. Counseling and Eyes on me don’t add ny value to the album in my opinion. And when you are talking about the line between Very good, great, and timeless, even small blemishes like that are cause to remove points. It’s not as good as Hell Hath. This album may be better suited for mass consumption, but as a work, it does have extra fat. Thanks for reading.
Good Review
Pretty good review Folk, I think this album is as good as Hell Hath… Both albums have some filler but are GREAT works. If I had to cut any two tracks from this album then it’d mosdef be “Eyes On ME” and “Showing Out” I find the production on that one to be uninteresting as well as too busy and disjointed. Not to mention none of the verses on it are very interesting. And I think that “Counseling” is a dope track. Clipse go in on it and get introspective but still provide that tongue in cheek, nonchalant swagger they’re known for.
Nice review, but come one, I’m a big Killa fan, but that verse was absolutely terrible, I can’t even imagine where the dispute would lay.
Great review. I listened to the snippets today and I’m psyched to hear the finished product. I have a question for you odeisel. How would you rank their CDs so far? Is this better than Lord Willin’?
I think Hell Hath is a better cd, but I feel that I can listen to Lord Willin’ more without getting tired of it. So far, it seems like Casket will be the same way. Am I right on this?
In the beginning, I thought Pusha had that frenzy that Big had. I really thought with focus, he’d be the best thing that happened to rap.
Flat out, tell me two verses on here that might compare to anything from the other two or the mixtapes.
I get it, they’re trying to get more mainstream and score some hits.
But this is a flat-out horrible album. I find it funny that anyone that used to hustle that the Clipse were rapping for find themselves broke as shit these days. Honestly, O’s and QP’s are thru the roof. I don’t need to hear about money, clubs,
As a clipse fan, All you can ask for is a glimmer of the high you used to get when you put on Hell Hath. Honestly, that shit woke me up and made mornings go from zero to ten.
Biggest dissappointment of the year. “Lyrically-driven” has become “completely lost”. Get back w. Rap about cops, B.i.g., cunt-stunting, poverty, anything. Even coke if you can put a decent punchline to it. Anything but this shit. Hopefully this critical failure will bring them back to the original recipe.
In the beginning, I thought Pusha had that frenzy that Big had. I really thought with focus, he’d be the best thing that happened to rap.
Flat out, tell me two verses on here that might compare to anything from the other two or the mixtapes.
I get it, they’re trying to get more mainstream and score some hits.
But this is a flat-out horrible album. I find it funny that anyone that used to hustle that the Clipse were rapping for find themselves broke as hell these days. Honestly, O’s and QP’s are thru the roof. I don’t need to hear about money, clubs, ecetera.
As a clipse fan, All you can ask for is a glimmer of the high you used to get when you put on Hell Hath. Honestly, that shit woke me up and made mornings go from zero to ten. Kinda like a Big Deal does kinda hint at that.
But on the whole, Biggest dissappointment of the year. “Lyrically-driven” has become “completely lost”. Get back to the drawing board. Rap about cops, B.i.g. poverty, anything. Even coke if you can put a decent punchline to it. Anything but this mess. Hopefully this critical failure will bring them back to the original recipe.
To Cody,
I would think that obviously Hell Hath is at the top of their food chain. Lord Willing Came out in a vacuum so it has that surprise factor and a lack of previous expectations. I think that this is a btter album than Lord, but it isn’t as raw. So on that level that’s not a quality judgement thats a preference judgement.
The problem with Til The Casket drops is ironically Road Til The Casket Drop and some of the beats that they slaughtered. They bodied flashing lights there but got bodied by Ye on Kinda Like A Big Deal. They flat out destroyed Ryan Leslie’s Addicted, but then they got that garbage Keri Hilson song on there.
So it’s almost like Ready to Die vs Life After Death, where youre comparing a tighter narrative to a wider range of skill, and where pure emceeing is sacrificed for superior song construction. Wherever you lay on that argument will probably affect how you feel about this Clipse album. While I prefer Life After to R2D, this album is inferior to Hell Hath. It’s a bit less clear when you’re talking Lord Willing. Hope that helps. Peace
To Fullscale,
I think you are a real fan of the Clipse and are annoyed by the obvious reach towards pop ideology and I know a few hardbody Clipse fans that echo yoursentiment, but i believe it’s borne more of disappointment than trash material. it isn’t the group you rode with but it’s not trash per se. Just not what you expected. But this album may add some legs to their career depending on how it does. Some people felt the same way about Blueprint 3, but the verdict is that that album will allow him to be viable in the market place for a couple more cycles, while 50 Cent’s inability to change just affectively deaded him, at least for this one. I’m a love of Hip-Hop but when you do Hip-Hop to eat you ARE subject to the music business.
Peace
To King Poetic,
Thanks for the support. I disagree on that Killa verse though. It reminds me of his verse on “Gone” from Ye’s album. There’s no computers puting or anything silly. Maybe we look for different things from Cam. Thats the beauty of art people can look at the same thing and feel differently.
Peace
Odsisel,
I’m a little thrown by these lines in your review: “Cam drops a non nonsensical verse and really wrestles this one to submission. Verses like this stop you from wondering what all the Cam fuss is about. Not the greatest, but good for a pace changer.” Do you mean that Cam’ron is usually a great lyricist, but didn’t perform, hence the “nonsensical” statement. Or, conversely, the wrestling to submission proved his lyrical ability.
Also, I’ve been a Clipse fan for a long time now. And I’ve noticed the progression of the two rappers (save for a couple mixtape guest appearances of course). Many folks, especially on the Internet cite Pusha as the better lyricist; however, I disagree and claim Malice to be better. Your take? Forgive me for asking you what I’m sure you’ve been asked (and pondered yourself) before.
OBZ,
The quote is NON nonsensical, as in Devoid to the silly Dipset rhymes that he dropped when he was associated with them. as in “keep computers ‘putin”. He wrestles this particular verse into sumbission as in he took control of it and delivered. hope that helps.
As far as the Clipse, Pusha is the better lyricist, Malice has the greater “gravity” to his delivery. Admittedly you can get mixed up sometimes because they dont really really sound the same but i lose track of whose flow is whose. Kinda like knowing that two twins don’t look alike but you forget exactly which one is named what lol. Hope that wasn’t too confusing. But Pusha is superior lyrically Malice is superior in delivery. Their flows are about even. It was great ahving sandman and liva to break them up verse wise.
Peace
[...] was an avalanche of reviews to close out the 4th quarter. The much anticipated ‘Til The Casket Drops was reviewed by yours truly the big homie. The review was one of the first to hit the street and [...]
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